Making of Tobacco

Fine-cut tobacco

Fine-cut tobacco is about consumer choice

Whether consumers want to roll their own cigarettes or make them using a cigarette tube-filling machine, the choice is their’s. We enjoy regional leadership positions in both tobacco categories.

From field to machine

Grown in fields all over the world, our fine-cut tobacco travels far to arrive at its destination in Holstebro, Denmark, and Tucker, USA.

Pride in our brands

Working with brands that are big in their markets generates pride. Our brands are visible right across the world.

Fine-cut tobacco comes in many brands and sizes

At Scandinavian Tobacco Group, we cater for the world market from our bases in Holstebro, Denmark and from Tucker, Georgia, in the United States.

THE FINE-CUT TOBACCO TRADITIONS

THE FINE-CUT TOBACCO TRADITIONS

A home-made cigarette made using fine-cut tobacco may be called either a Roll-Your-Own or a Make-Your-Own. This depends on whether it is rolled by hand using paper and tobacco, or whether it is made using a cigarette-tube filling machine.

Several different tobacco blends, different curing method and cutting techniques are used to make cigarettes. Sometimes, additives like sugar, glycerol and flavouring are also used.

These are some of the traditional blend types

American blend
Typically a mixture of Virginia, Burley and Oriental tobaccos.  

Virginia Blend
Typically a mixture of Virginia and Oriental tobaccos. 

Half Zware
Normally made of Virginia, dark-fired, dark air-cured tobaccos.

Zware
Contains a greater proportion of dark-fired or air-cured tobaccos and less Virginia tobacco than Half Zware. Zware means "heavy" or "dark", so Zware tobacco is darker – in both colour and taste – than Half Zware.

From seed to packaging

1. planting

Tobacco seeds are small and powder-like, so they are planted in protected seedbeds. The soil around the growing seedlings is plumped up for extra protection while their roots grow strong.

2. Into the field

After some 8-10 weeks, the seedlings are planted in the fields where they grow for approximately two months. Flowers and upper leaves are removed to encourage the remaining leaves to grow.

3. Harvesting

Harvesting is mostly done by hand and occasionally by machine. It is done gradually by removing a few leaves at a time as they ripen. This process can take several months.

4. Curing

Curing aims to achieve the desired quality, colour and texture of a particular tobacco type. Generally, fine-cut tobacco is cured employing one of the following methods:

Sun-curing: the tobacco leaves are hung on racks under the sun.

Fire-curing: the tobacco is hung in ventilated barns and cured with heat and smoke by burning sawdust. Fire-cured tobacco is widely used in RYO products (half zware and zware; "zware” is Dutch for “heavy”) and in Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s brand Tiedemanns.

Flue-curing: the tobacco is hung in barns and dried in the heat from an external furnace.

Air-curing: the tobacco is hung in ventilated barns for natural drying.

5. Leaf processing

The tobacco is threshed and the lamina is separated from the stem. Quality checks are performed and the moisture of the tobacco is brought to a level that makes it safe for shipping to tobacco-manufacturing sites.

In RYO, the stem can either be separated from the lamina by hand (for hand-stripped tobacco) or the stem and lamina are not separated at all (loose-leaf tobacco) – this form is used for Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s Norwegian RYO brand Tiedemanns.

Fine-cut tobacco types and origins

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  • North America (2)
  • South America (3)
  • Europe (1)
  • Africa (3)
  • Asia (4)

VIRGINIA

Virginia is the most widely used leaf tobacco. Its leaves are 20 – 50 cm in length. Leaf colours ranges from golden, lemon, orange and mahogany. Virginia has a high content of natural sugar and a sweet taste. Virginia is harvested leaf-by-leaf from the bottom of the plant. The leaves are dried with hot air (flue cured). The tobacco is grown all over the world.

BURLEY

Burley is the second most widely used leaf tobacco. Its leaves are 20 – 50 cm long and range in colour from light brown to very dark brown. The taste is full-bodied with notes of chocolate and nuts. When the lowest leaves are harvested, the whole plant can either be cut down and dried or the plant can be harvested leaf-by-leaf. This depends on where it is grown. Burley has a low natural sugar content. The leaves are dried using natural ventilation and no sun (air cured).  The tobacco is grown in the US, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Mexico.

VIRGINIA

Virginia is the most widely used leaf tobacco. Its leaves are 20 – 50 cm in length. Leaf colours ranges from golden, lemon, orange and mahogany. Virginia has a high content of natural sugar and a sweet taste. Virginia is harvested leaf-by-leaf from the bottom of the plant. The leaves are dried with hot air (flue cured). The tobacco is grown all over the world.

DARK AIR-CURED

Dark air-cured tobacco can be produced from various seed types. Leaves can be up to 80 cm long, heavy bodied and with high content of natural oil. The plant is topped at 10 - 14 leaves and stalk cut. Leaves are brown to dark brown and have a good cutting quality. The tobacco is air cured under cover with natural ventilation. This variety is grown in most parts of the tobacco-producing world – the US, Canada, South America, Africa and the Far East.

BURLEY

Burley is the second most widely used leaf tobacco. Its leaves are 20 – 50 cm long and range in colour from light brown to very dark brown. The taste is full-bodied with notes of chocolate and nuts. When the lowest leaves are harvested, the whole plant can either be cut down and dried or the plant can be harvested leaf-by-leaf. This depends on where it is grown. Burley has a low natural sugar content. The leaves are dried using natural ventilation and no sun (air cured).  The tobacco is grown in the US, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Mexico.

ORIENTAL

Oriental leaves are 2 – 15 cm long and light golden to dark orange in colour. Oriental tobacco leaves have a light sweet, strong/spicy aroma. The plant is grown in nutrient-deficient soil in a hot and dry climate, producing leaves containing a high level of aromatic oils. The leaves are harvested leaf-by-leaf and dried on a string in the sun (sun cured). This tobacco is grown in Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey.

VIRGINIA

Virginia is the most widely used leaf tobacco. Its leaves are 20 – 50 cm in length. Leaf colours ranges from golden, lemon, orange and mahogany. Virginia has a high content of natural sugar and a sweet taste. Virginia is harvested leaf-by-leaf from the bottom of the plant. The leaves are dried with hot air (flue cured). The tobacco is grown all over the world.

DARK FIRE-CURED

Dark-fired tobacco leaves are up to 80 cm long, full-bodied and have a high content of natural oil. Dark-fired leaves are cured with smoke from smouldering wood. The type of wood used plays a big part in determining the taste of the tobacco. The cured leaves obtain a very dark colour and have a distinct smoky aroma. The plants are topped very low, to just 12 - 14 leaves, and stalk cut. The most significant producers are to be found in the US, Asia and South East Africa.

BURLEY

Burley is the second most widely used leaf tobacco. Its leaves are 20 – 50 cm long and range in colour from light brown to very dark brown. The taste is full-bodied with notes of chocolate and nuts. When the lowest leaves are harvested, the whole plant can either be cut down and dried or the plant can be harvested leaf-by-leaf. This depends on where it is grown. Burley has a low natural sugar content. The leaves are dried using natural ventilation and no sun (air cured).  The tobacco is grown in the US, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Mexico.

VIRGINIA

Virginia is the most widely used leaf tobacco. Its leaves are 20 – 50 cm in length. Leaf colours ranges from golden, lemon, orange and mahogany. Virginia has a high content of natural sugar and a sweet taste. Virginia is harvested leaf-by-leaf from the bottom of the plant. The leaves are dried with hot air (flue cured). The tobacco is grown all over the world.

DARK FIRE-CURED

Dark-fired tobacco leaves are up to 80 cm long, full-bodied and have a high content of natural oil. Dark-fired leaves are cured with smoke from smouldering wood. The type of wood used plays a big part in determining the taste of the tobacco. The cured leaves obtain a very dark colour and have a distinct smoky aroma. The plants are topped very low, to just 12 - 14 leaves, and stalk cut. The most significant producers are to be found in the US, Asia and South East Africa.

BURLEY

Burley is the second most widely used leaf tobacco. Its leaves are 20 – 50 cm long and range in colour from light brown to very dark brown. The taste is full-bodied with notes of chocolate and nuts. When the lowest leaves are harvested, the whole plant can either be cut down and dried or the plant can be harvested leaf-by-leaf. This depends on where it is grown. Burley has a low natural sugar content. The leaves are dried using natural ventilation and no sun (air cured).  The tobacco is grown in the US, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Mexico.

DARK AIR-CURED

Dark air-cured tobacco can be produced from various seed types. Leaves can be up to 80 cm long, heavy bodied and with high content of natural oil. The plant is topped at 10 - 14 leaves and stalk cut. Leaves are brown to dark brown and have a good cutting quality. The tobacco is air cured under cover with natural ventilation. This variety is grown in most parts of the tobacco-producing world – the US, Canada, South America, Africa and the Far East.

Fine-cut tobacco facts

Scandinavian Tobacco Group is a market leader for RYO/MYO (Roll-Your-Own and Make-Your-Own) tobacco in Scandinavia and in the Unites States.

Volume tobacco, also called expanded tobacco, is frozen to minus 70 degrees Celsius, and then heated to 325 degrees Celsius.

Scandinavian Tobacco Group has 75 different fine-cut blends.

Scandinavian Tobacco Group buys fine-cut tobacco from 20+ countries.

EXPLORE OUR WORLD

From Our Tobacco Library

Learn about some of the most commonly used tobaccos and where they come from

Sourcing Nature

Get the insights from seed to cigar, pipe tobacco and fine cut

History of Tobacco

Discover how the crop journeyed from the americas across the world over thousands of years